


Numb3rs Drabbles: Gen

by kiscico



Category: Numb3rs
Genre: Christmas, Community: numb3rs100, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Hockey, POV Multiple, Season/Series 03, Season/Series 04, Survivor Guilt, Team as Family, Therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-26
Updated: 2018-03-25
Packaged: 2019-04-08 06:20:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14099142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiscico/pseuds/kiscico
Summary: A series of Gen Numb3rs drabbles and ficlets.1. William Bradford POV, Don and his team take turns on Bradford's couch.2. Don's had a bad day. Charlie's been thinking.3. David POV, Don, Colby, and David go to a hockey game.4. David POV, A freak snowstorm hits LA, and the non-Californians enjoy their fellow agents' responses.5. Howard Meeks contemplates the LA FBI Violent Crimes Unit’s demise. (WARNING: major character death)6. David gathers evidence on one Colby Granger.





	1. Dysfunction

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for N100's January Rewind Prompts: Bullet, Blood, Luck, and  
> Survival. Also written for N100's challenge character: William Bradford, and January's theme: Character.

_Character: William Bradford_  
William Bradford is a practical man. As ex-LAPD, he has a strong set of values and a stronger will. Everyday he has members of law enforcement sitting on his couch- talking, arguing, crying, yelling, cursing- Bradford has seen it all, heard it all. Or, at least he thought he had, until Don Eppes and the rest of his socially and emotionally dysfunctional, yet highly successful, team took their turns on his couch. First, Eppes and a single bullet, then Sinclair and a blood brother, third was Reeves and a lucky rescue, and last Granger's survival on a Chinese freighter.

 

_Bullet: Don Eppes_  
Bradford was ready to go to lunch, but he had one last appointment- one Don Eppes, to be evaluated after a shooting. Quick and easy, Bradford thought, out in ten. And then he met Eppes- agitated and argumentative, he thought therapy was a waste of time. He didn't want to examine his feelings or have a shrink crawl around in his head. So Bradford kept Eppes for the entire hour. Eppes needed more therapy, and would return, eventually- but only on his own terms. In the mean time, at least Eppes had a steadfast support system to fall back on.

 

_Blood: David Sinclair_  
When David Sinclair made an appointment a week after Bradford met Don Eppes, the therapist was wary. Trying to keep Eppes' opinion of Sinclair far from his mind, Bradford immediately got down to business. Sinclair spoke at length about his friend and brother, Ben Ellis, with little to no prompting from Bradford. He was obviously very distraught over the whole thing, but simply talking about it had helped. When their time was up, Bradford couldn't help but ask Sinclair what he thought about his teammates. His answers were decisive. Don was self-assured, Megan was insightful, and Colby was passionate.

 

_Luck: Megan Reeves_  
When Megan Reeves called to ask if he had time for an appointment, Bradford told her to come right in. She explained that eight months ago she had been kidnapped and held hostage for over a day, before her team had saved her. Bradford was familiar with the case- it was the reason he had met Eppes. Reeves spoke at length about the experience and how she connected with Hoyle a little too well. She talked about the team finding her, their great timing, and Don choosing her over catching Hoyle. It wasn't luck, she said, it was her team.

 

_Survival: Colby Granger_  
By the time Bradford finally met Colby Granger, he had been counseling Eppes for six months. Bradford had been asked to evaluate Granger for active duty after the fiasco with the Chinese. Bradford tried to keep images of Eppes raging from the unexpected betrayal, out of his mind. Granger spoke quietly about Carter, spying on his friends, five weeks of prison and finally torture and interrogation under the hands of Lancer. Bradford signed off on Granger returning to active duty after one session. Granger needed therapy, and would return, but in the mean time at least he had his team.


	2. Pensive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don's had a bad day. Charlie's been thinking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally written for N100 prompt: Fireplace.

Charlie was staring into the fire when Don came home. Don's perfunctory check of the mail showed nothing of interest. The calm ritual of getting himself a beer and flopping onto the floor next to Charlie was enough to soothe Don's post-firefight nerves.

“Colby called.” Charlie's voice was quiet, strained. “He said you had been shot.”

“It was just a graze- barely a scratch.” Don paused, then rolled up his sleeve- revealing a neat white bandage.

“See, not so bad.” Charlie nodded and leaned against Don, staring pensively into the flames- pointedly trying not to entertain any “what ifs.”


	3. The Finer Points of Professional Hockey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don, Colby, and David go to a hockey game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally written for N100 prompt: Ice

David was excited when Don invited him and Colby to a hockey game down in Anaheim. It was a Rangers-Ducks game, and David couldn't wait to watch the Californian team get crushed by New York. When the three FBI agents found their seats, Don and Colby were already arguing hockey. Colby was convinced that hockey teams from places that have snow have better teams. 

“The Ducks won the Stanley Cup two years ago, and before them Tampa Bay and Carolina won.” Don insisted.

“But the two teams that have won the Stanley the most in the past two decades are Detroit and New Jersey.” Colby pointed out. David just shook his head at their debate. 

“Either way, New York is going to win tonight.” That just sparked more discussion on the finer points of professional hockey.

In the end David had the last word when New York won.


	4. California Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A freak snowstorm hits LA, and the non-Californians enjoy their fellow agents' responses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally written for the N100 prompt: Snow

Charlie could have told you the odds of Los Angeles county being hit by a freak snowstorm. When it actually happened in late December all David cared about was the snow itself. David loved his job, and really enjoyed Los Angeles, but there was just something wrong about a warm, sunny Christmas. 

When David finally got to work, he was surprised to see he was the first one there. When Don came in, he was wearing a thick winter jacket, Charlie trailing behind him, spouting probabilities and wearing the most ridiculous tasseled ski hat David had ever seen. Nikki came in wrapped in what looked to be six different layers, and cursing the cold. And then there was Colby. He and David had long ago agreed on white versus SoCal Christmases. As Colby shrugged off his jacket, he and David shared a grin over the antics of Californians in snow.


	5. Survivor's Guilt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Howard Meeks contemplates the LA FBI Violent Crimes Unit’s demise. **WARNING: Major Character Death!**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally written for N100 prompt: Defect, and November '07 challenge character: Howard Meeks

Defective bullet proof vests. It was a brilliant plan. Design a material that stood up well to initial tests and then rapidly deteriorates, sell it to the Taiwanese, who then sell it to the Japanese, who then sell it to the American government. It wasn’t a direct act of terrorism, in fact, no one would even had suspected the North Koreans if a group of federal agents hadn’t been gunned down while operating under a Korean tip.

Howard Meeks had seen a lot of brutal things in his career as an AUSA. But what hurt the most with this case was that he had know these agents.   
Howard had been told that the raid had been routine. It was a Salvadorian drug cartel, that had been snitched on by local Korean gang bangers.  
The resulting chaos had not been routine. 

By the time it quieted, six Salvadorians, and three federal agents were dead. Sinclair had been the first to go down, a clean shot through his vest. It had cut like butter, shot through the supposed bullet-resistant material like it was cotton. Reeves had gone down when the North Koreans ambushed her from behind. Her defective vest wouldn’t have done anything to prevent the double-tap, execution-style murder. Finally, like a captain going down with his ship, Don Eppes had been hit with a burst of semi-automatic fire. The vest might have given another few minutes, but by the time he hit the ground he felt no more. Granger had survived the fire fight. He died four days later. Reeves would have called it survivor’s guilt gone wrong. 

Charlie had been invaluable to Howard’s case, but Howard knew that Charlie was feeling the same survivor’s guilt that had killed Colby Granger. Howard just prayed that Charlie wouldn’t end the same way.


	6. Poetic Justice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David gathers evidence on one Colby Granger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally written for the N100 prompt: Evidence

When Colby had been released from the hospital, and after he had been debriefed, all Colby had wanted to do was call his best friend and have a few beers. But he couldn't. He knew David well enough to know he was feeling betrayed, thinking that he would never be able to trust anything Colby said again. Colby knew, because David had told him that that's exactly how he had felt after the case with his old buddy Ben Ellis. He would also be feeling guilty for not trusting Colby. 

When Colby returned to the FBI, he wasn't surprised to find his desk thoroughly cleaned out. He also wasn't surprised when only Megan and Don came out to greet him. Weeks went by and David was still silent.

David had been watching. Colby had noticed. David watched him like he watched criminals on a stakeout, collecting evidence. Colby let him watch.

David was, in a way, fascinated by Colby. He would watch as often as he could, sometimes not even pretending to be discreet, yet... he just saw Colby. Plain ol' Colby Granger, the rookie he had mentored, and the friend he had learned to trust. He supposed that there was some sort of poetic justice to the whole situation. After condemning his boyhood friend, Ben Ellis, as guilty, and then finding out he had been wrong… David had shied away from all of his relationships. Colby had reassured him...

Colby had turned out to be a spy. And then, by the time he had come to terms with that, Colby turned out to be a guy pretending to be a spy.

David didn't know what to do with Colby. So he did what every good officer of the law would. He watched Colby, collecting more evidence by the day.


End file.
